Asked by: Lord Randall of Uxbridge (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the Answers of 9 April 2014, Official Report, column 274WS and 14 January 2014, Official Report, column 481W, on human trafficking: victim support schemes, for what reason information on each individual and on their gender and location was not given in the former Answer; and if she will provide that information in response to future parliamentary questions seeking equivalent information.
Answered by Karen Bradley
In March 2014, there were 126 referrals to the Government-funded support
service for adult victims of human trafficking in England and Wales
administered by the Salvation Army, of which 78 were female victims and 48 were
male victims. In the interests of victim safety only the region in which the
victim was encountered is provided, and not the county, parliamentary
constituency or details of the specific shelters at which victims are
supported. The scope of the victim care contract does not extend (a) beyond the
date on which a victim exits government funded support or (b) to the safety and
protection of victims post the recovery and reflection period. The Salvation
Army therefore does not routinely maintain contact with victims outside the
scope of the victim care contract.
The breakdown of information requested is as follows and will be provided in
response to future parliamentary questions seeking equivalent information.
Asked by: Lord Randall of Uxbridge (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the Answer of 9 April 2014, Official Report, column 274W, on human trafficking: victim support schemes, how many of those referred were (a) men and (b) women, by country; what steps are taken to ensure that after the victim exits the shelter into which they have been placed by the Salvation Army they are not retrafficked or enter contact with their former traffickers; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Karen Bradley
In March 2014, there were 126 referrals to the Government-funded support
service for adult victims of human trafficking in England and Wales
administered by the Salvation Army, of which 78 were female victims and 48 were
male victims. In the interests of victim safety only the region in which the
victim was encountered is provided, and not the county, parliamentary
constituency or details of the specific shelters at which victims are
supported. The scope of the victim care contract does not extend (a) beyond the
date on which a victim exits government funded support or (b) to the safety and
protection of victims post the recovery and reflection period. The Salvation
Army therefore does not routinely maintain contact with victims outside the
scope of the victim care contract.
The breakdown of information requested is as follows and will be provided in
response to future parliamentary questions seeking equivalent information.
Asked by: Lord Randall of Uxbridge (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will take steps to ensure that assets of human traffickers are frozen within 48 hours of their arrest; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Karen Bradley
The Serious and Organised Crime Strategy, published in October 2013, sets out
how the Government will make it harder for criminals to use, hide and move the
proceeds of crime. The Government will, as soon as parliamentary time allows,
seek to amend the Proceeds of Crime Act to enable assets to be frozen more
quickly and easily.
Section 60B of the Sexual Offences Act 2003 allows for relevant land vehicle,
ship or aircraft to be detained where a person has been arrested for a human
trafficking offence. These powers will be brought forward and consolidated
into the Modern Slavery Bill.
Asked by: Lord Randall of Uxbridge (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make a comparative assessment of the sources, reliability and mutual compatibility of the statistics on the number of human trafficking victims from Albania given in parliamentary written answers and in the annual reports of the National Crime Agency.
Answered by Karen Bradley
A comparative assessment has been made.
Parliamentary questions regularly ask for specific details about suspected
victims of trafficking referred to the trafficking victim support service
operated by The Salvation Army.
The source of this data is The Salvation Army records.
The National Crime Agency (NCA) publishes statistics each year on the number of
potential victims who have been referred to the National Referral Mechanism.
The source of this data is the NCA records.
The two sets of figures measure slightly different things but are mutually
compatible.
Not all of the potential victims who are referred to the National Referral
Mechanism will then be referred to The Salvation Army for victim support. Some
might not receive a positive reasonable grounds decision and others might not
want Government-funded support.
We would therefore expect the number of cases referred to the National Referral
Mechanism, reported by the NCA, to be higher than the number of cases referred
to The Salvation Army for victim support, reported by the regular Parliamentary
questions.
This is borne out by our comparative assessment. The table below lists the PQs
that have requested data about the numbers of potential victims referred to The
Salvation Army, and lists the number of Albanian victims supported each month.
In total, this data indicates that there were 139 Albanian adult victims
referred to The Salvation Army for victim support in 2013 in England and Wales.
This is lower than the 208 potential adult Albanian victims who were originally
referred to the National Referral Mechanism in 2013 from England and Wales, as
reported in the NCA's annual report.
Month | MP | Hansard Reference | No. of Albanian Victims Supported |
January | Tony Baldry | 14 February 2013, c866W | 5 |
February | Amber Rudd | 11 March 2013, c33W | 9 |
March | Margot James | 3 June 2013, c925W | 7 |
April | Robert Buckland | 3 June 2013, c927W | 14 |
May | David Simpson | 19 June 2013, c712W | 10 |
June | Chris Ruane | 10 July 2013, c276W | 9 |
July | Fiona Bruce | 6 February 2014, c325W | 12 |
August | Caroline Spelman | 28 October 2013, c358W | 9 |
September | Peter Bone | 14 October 2013, c512W | 16 |
October | Fiona Bruce | 3 December 2013, c613W | 23 |
November | John Randall | 9 January 2014, c277W | 17 |
December | Frank Field | 14 January 2014, c481W | 8 |
TOTAL | 139 |
Asked by: Lord Randall of Uxbridge (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 7 January 2014, Official Report, column 277W, on human trafficking and of 14 January 2014, Official report, columns 481-6W, on human trafficking: victim support schemes, what information she has on the whereabouts of each of the (a) 92 victims of human trafficking found in the UK in November 2013 and (b) 113 victims of human trafficking found in UK in December 2013.
Answered by Karen Bradley
The information requested is published by the Salvation Army in an annual ‘Anti-
Human Trafficking Report'. The latest report, which covers the period July
2012-June 2013, can be found at:
https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/uki-cache.salvationarmy.org/fdda0251-4ab6-4bf
8-9fc0-4837891ad1c7_Fourth+draft+Year+2+AHT+VICTIM+Contract.pdf.
The report covering the period July 2013-June 2014 will be published later this
year.
Asked by: Lord Randall of Uxbridge (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the nationality and gender was of each suspected victim of trafficking referred to the Trafficking Victim Support Scheme operated by the Salvation Army in March 2014; which agency referred each person to that scheme; in which town the shelter to which those people were placed for the relevant period was; and what contact is had with each such victim to ensure their safety after they exit the scheme.
Answered by Karen Bradley
In March 2014, there were 126 referrals to the Government-funded support
service for adult victims of human trafficking in England and Wales
administered by The Salvation Army. In the interests of victim safety only the
region in which the victim was encountered is provided, and not which town they
were placed in. Once an individual receives a Conclusive Grounds decision they
will be given tailored move-on support to safely return home or integrate in
the UK. Once they exit the service, no formal mechanisms exist to maintain
contact.